BrahMos to be upgraded to ‘hypersonic’ in a decade: Scientist

Mumbai: The speeds of the BrahMos missile will be upgraded from existing supersonic to hypersonic with superior destructive capabilities in a phased manner within a decade, a top official said here on Tuesday.

“Presently, the BrahMos has a speed of 2.8 Mach… in two years time it would be increased to 3.5 Mach, and by five five years, it would be 5 Mach,” said BrahMos Aerospace Pvt.Ltd. (BAPL) Managing Director & CEO Sudhir Kumar Mishra.

Thereafter, to go to hypersonic mode, it is likely to take another seven-ten years as the missiles would graduate from ramjet to scramjet engine, and considering other complex issues of aerodynamic heating, combustion, vibrations, etc, he said.

Mishra was speaking at a function to mark Godrej Aerospace Ltd’s handing over of the 100th set of airframe assemblies to BAPL, and bagging another order to produce 100 more units of airframes of the Air Launched version of the missile and launch of its production.

“Making the BrahMos missiles itself was a challenge and we have done ita and we shall upgrade as per the needs,” said Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Jamshyd N. Godrej.

Mishra also said that the hypersonic BrahMos missiles would change the scenario as it would have immense destructive power besides in increased speed.

Besides, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MRCR) regime have allowed India to trade in high-end missile technology and enhance its JVs with Russia.

To a question whether India was considering exports of BrahMos to friendly nations, he said there is a set of users (Indian armed forces) with which the company is working, but the issue of exports would be decided at the government levels.

In its current supersonic avatar, the BrahMos cruise missiles has a flight range of upto 290 kms and it can be armed with a conventional 200-300 kg warhead.

It can cruise at altitudes of 10 metres above ground or as high as 15 kms maintaining supersonic speeds of more than a km per second throughout the flight duration.

As a “fire and forget” stealth universal supersonic missile, once it is launched, it doesn’t need any further guidance from a control centre.

It is versatile enough to be fired from land-based platforms, submarines, and ships like the Talwar Class, Rajput Class and Sukhoi aircraft, for precision strikes to destroy targets on land and sea.

Godrej Aerospace has been associated with the BrahMos missiles program since inception in 2001, manufacturing most of the metallic sub-systems in it, the main airframe, control surfaces and nose cap, besides Mobile Autonomous Launchers and Missile Replenishing Vehicles for the land launched versions.

The first successful BrahMos was launched on June 12, 2001 from a terrestrial launched at an interim test range off Chandipur cost in Odisha.